I have always loved Dr. Seuss! As a child and even a teenager, I was drawn to the wackiness of his themes and made-up words juxtaposed with the reason of his perfect prose. As I’ve studied early education and early literacy, I’ve come to love Dr. Seuss even more! His books are pretty much the best for building phonological awareness, the development of which is critical for reading (read more here). They not only expose children to rhythm and rhyme in an enchanting, almost intoxicating way, but they also introduce rhyming with invented words, which emphasizes further the importance of sound in rhyming – not meaning. These “nonsense words” also open the imagination and creativity of children in a simply magical way. In my opinion, his work is so critical to a good education, I refer to him as the Shakespeare of childhood!
